SINGAPORE - A swathe of positive developments helped lift the Singapore bourse out of its trading doldrums on Monday.
News that Greece will not immediately crash out of the euro zone after a compromise deal was hashed out following a marathon emergency summit sent the benchmark Straits Times Index up 31.34 points to 3,311.22 yesterday.
Some 1.41 billion shares worth S$799.6 million were traded.
"The worst-case scenario is now off the table. There isn't going to be a Grexit for now, but the devil is in the details. Without this news, the local market would have been dead. But the successful resolution of this issue will remove overhang on the STI for now," a remisier said. "Those who took a chance and bought into the market on Friday at the 3,280 levels, would have been rewarded today."
Blue chip counters staged a strong performance, as Grexit fears receded and helped by a positive European lead. Bank counters DBS and UOB jumped 1.5 per cent and nearly 1 per cent respectively. DBS gained 31 cents to S$20.95, while UOB rose 22 cents to S$22.98. Singtel climbed 1.4 per cent or six cents to S$4.35.
China also provided a positive lead for most Asian bourses including Singapore, after unprecedented government intervention to end a rout that wiped almost US$4 trillion (S$5.4 trillion) of market value finally gained traction, helping Shanghai to rebound 13 per cent in the past three days.
